A woman has told a court the celebrity publicist Max Clifford accused her of being a tease after she fought off his sexual advances in the back of a London cab.

The alleged attack happened in 1978, she told Southwark crown court, after she had gone for a meeting at Mr Clifford's Bond Street offices.

The woman, who cannot be named, worked as a recruitment consultant and was there to help Mr Clifford find a new personal assistant.

She described how the meeting turned into a discussion that went on for "hours and hours, I think perhaps about five hours".

The woman said the meeting turned into her being interviewed for the position of the PA - she accused Mr Clifford of saying she would have to help protect his various celebrities.

She said: "He explained that some of his clients had odd sexual preferences ... and as a publicist that was problematic."

At the end of the meeting, she says Mr Clifford suggested they share a taxi but when they set off he told the driver to go to London Bridge - she had wanted to go to Victoria in the opposite direction.

She said Mr Clifford started "trying to kiss me, he kind of launched himself at me actually. He started trying to kiss me on the mouth which I said 'no' to."

"I tried to hold him off, he was pushing his body onto me," she said.

Rosina Cottage QC for the prosecution asked her: "Did you want it?"

The woman replied emphatically: "No ... apart from anything else he was much, much, much, much older than me.

"He wasn't a young attractive man he was an old guy.

"While he was trying kiss me, he was trying to grab at me, he was grabbing at my breasts."

The woman said she was embarrassed and felt she could not report it because nobody would believe her: "I felt conned by a con artist and I still do."

The defence said she had her dates mixed up for the day of the meeting and suggested it had taken place a year later in 1979.

Richard Horwell QC said the meeting had been much shorter than the woman claimed and it was "entirely professional."

Mr Clifford denies the attack in the taxi ever took place, and denies the other indecent assault charges he faces.